So, several of my friends and I have been talking about and sharing some of the small changes we have made in our lives regarding the environment and our consumer lifestyle. I thought I would share some of my favorite changes that we have made since I love reading and hearing about changes others have made.

One of the biggest changes we have made is buying most of our produce from a community share agriculture program, which I love. We have been eating new kinds of veggies and some healthier versions of our favorites.

We no longer purchase bottled water. We fill up our reusable bottles (these are my favorites). These bottles are also great if you are worried about BPAs from plastics, and so cute too!

We also use cloth (yes, you heard me right…)diapers. I have to admit, this was a hard one for me to try out. I keep reading about them and thinking about them and I was just leary because of my deep seeded fear of dealing with the poop. Then, I went through potty training with Ava and realized that poop is just…poop. No big deal. And really, as Moms, poop is pretty minor on the scale of nasties that we deal with. I tried several different cloth diapers and these were my faves by far. They function just like disposables and are super easy to clean. The hardest thing is stuffing the inserts into the diaper since they are a pocket diaper…but more on that later.

I love these wrap-n-mats that I found through my friend Rebecca….we use these instead of ziploc bags for sandwhiches, carrot sticks, cherry tomatos, or whatever. Ava loves them, and so do I. They are super easy to clean and really versatile. They hold roughly two full sandwhiches.

These are my new favorite reusable bags. They are so thin they just roll into a tiny little ball and I can carry them in the car, in my purse, in the diaper bag. And they hold a TON for their size. 5 bags will cover my grocery shopping trip each week.

OK, and finally…we have started composting. Anyone who knows me, knows I am too impatient for the 6 months it takes a normal compost pile to go through the process. So, I made my own composter following some instructions on the internet. Basically, I bought a black 35 gallon trash can, drilled holes all over, and placed it on cinder blocks to allow air to circulate through it. We add to it everynight and then about once a week, I add water, and newspaper and roll it a few times to mix. I have heard this should break down in 4-6 weeks. It’s looking pretty good so far.

Some of my friends suggestions are these: Mrs. Meyers Cleansers, automatic light switches, Sara Snow’s TV show, and these cute little lunch bags.